By Becky Stowers
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iscipleship is a powerful word. It’s sharing and teaching God’s Word. It’s modeling Christlikeness. It’s building relationships with people, challenging them to live holy, righteous lives. It’s a cyclical process where we are discipling others to be disciples, and through it all we are developing a deep relationship with our Lord. It is a daily process that takes commitment, humility, and a desire to live fully for Him. I studied nursing at Cedarville University, and while there I got plugged into residence life, which lead me to work at Cedarville in student life for 13 years. During that time I got my Master’s from Liberty University in Human Services with an emphasis in Executive Leadership. From there I went to Palm Beach Atlantic University as the Director of Health and Wellness. I came to Heritage in the summer of 2017, and I quickly learned that discipleship has a team approach. Thinking back over my life, I see the people who challenged my walk with the Lord, specifically those people who discipled me. In high school, I had many different mentors who impacted my life. This is similar to Heritage, as discipleship is not something just the discipleship staff does. Discipleship is also something done by each and every one of our staff members.
I often hear of students who are meeting with teachers during their lunch periods, or of our teachers praying for students who are facing challenging obstacles. Our staff disciples well, and I love seeing it in action! I often have the joy of watching our students disciple other students. We provide mentoring opportunities for students at every grade level, so high school students can mentor middle and elementary students, and middle school students can mentor elementary students. Discipling is happening all over our campus, both formally and informally. There are many facets to my job as Discipleship Director. It ranges from helping the Leadership Team develop the spiritual theme for the year, to coordinating details of our Spiritual Emphasis Weeks, to creating chapel schedules, to planning and assisting in campus events for our students, to being available to
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SPRING 2019 HERITAGE MESSENGER
talk with students when they are having a difficult day. Each day is unique, and each day is a day when I get to see the Lord work in students’ lives.
Discipleship begins at home, which is why we’re excited about our Parent Resources, which provide materials for parents to learn how to be godly parents in our world today. A lot has changed in parenting over the years, and it’s important to be aware of the struggles our students are facing. Find out more about our Parent Resources at heritagechristian.net/resources.
